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Large Dams and their environmental and social impactsEMG has long been an active participant in the debate internationally and in South African around the social and environmental impacts of large dams. From facilitating civil society engagement with the World Commission on Dams, more recently we have been active in setting up a South African multi-stakeholder initiative tasked to find ways of incorporate WCD recommendations into our own policy and practice. For a more detailed picture of the issues raised by the building of large dams, have a look at some of the submission made by submissions made by communities affected by large dams across southern Africa at a 1999 conference. The submissions may be 6 years old, but the sentiments expressed remain as relevant today as ever. The Water DialoguesMunicipalities in South Africa face many challenges in ensuring effective, equitable and sustainable delivery of water and sanitation. Different approaches have been used, including partnerships with the private sector. However, there is little agreement, nationally and internationally, over the role of the private sector. The Water Dialogues - South Africa is a multi-stakeholder initiative which includes representatives from national and local government, civil society and the private sector, which aims to promote greater understanding of different service delivery models in order to support more effective universal provision of safe water and sanitation by local government. We have planned an 18 month programme to identify, critically analyze and evaluate these different approaches. The South African process is one of a series of national multistakeholder dialogues and research processes. Their objective is to examine whether and how the private sector can contribute to the delivery of affordable and sustainable water supply and sanitation services, especially to poor communities. Lessons from The Water Dialogues will generate information that can contribute to the development of sector strategies by governments and support for these strategies from international donors. To date, The Water Dialogues have been established in Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa and Uganda. Previously known as the Global Review on Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation, The Water Dialogues process was born out of the Bonn Freshwater Conference in 2002 which reached a deadlock over the issue of private sectro participation. The Water Dialogues differ from previous international multistakeholder processes in that most activities take place at the national and sub-national levels, that is, at the level of implementation, where findings can feed directly into existing national sector reform processes. The report entitled The Global Water Scoping Process: Is there a case for a multi-stakeholder review of private-sector participation in water and sanitation? Hard copies of both the Summary and Full Report are available from EMG, and the Full Report (zipped 2.4Mb) can be downloaded. South African Case Studies - Water Service DeliveryEMG has commisssioned 3 publications to date, giving alternative views
on the state of water services in South Africa. We focus on the participation
of community groups and how the delivery and management of water affects
attitudes towards its ownership and conservation. Hard copies of these
3 booklets are available from EMG or as PDF downloads. Click here for a complete list of available publications Water and TradeEMG was part of a research team including AWIRU and TIPS, commissioned by the Water Research Commission to look at the implications of South Africa’s trade policies for water policy and water resources management. The research examined a range of agreements relating to agriculture, services and manufacturing to see how these should be engaged with to ensure that South Africa is able to manage its water resources effectively and ensure the Constitutional right of access to water. Copies of the final report (ref: K5/1564) can be ordered from the Water Research Commission
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